”I have enteritis, give me money”... ”Enteritis man” threatens 3,000 restaurants nationwide = Korea

A man in his 30s has been arrested by the police for committing malicious fraud against many self-employed people. The Jeonbuk National Police Agency's Criminal Investigation Unit has arrested and is investigating suspect A (39) on suspicion of habitual fraud.
The incident was revealed on the 17th. Suspect A is accused of stealing 90 million won (approximately 10 million yen) from restaurants across the country over 418 occasions between June last year and March this year.
Suspect A committed the crimes by randomly calling an unspecified number of restaurants, claiming that he had dined with friends and developed enteritis, and demanding payment as compensation.
When the store owner refused, suspect A went so far as to threaten him, saying, "If you don't give me compensation, I'll call the ward office and have you close your business."
Fearing that their livelihoods would be ruined, the store owners responded to A's demands and transferred hundreds of thousands to millions of won in the name of settlement money.
Police obtained statements from the victimized restaurant owners and arrested suspect A at a lodging facility in Busan on the 12th of this month. The investigation revealed that suspect A had searched for famous restaurants around the country on his mobile phone.
After that, it was discovered that he made threatening phone calls to 10 to 20 restaurants every day. Because the period of his crimes was so long, approximately 3,000 restaurants nationwide received calls demanding settlement money.
The victimized shop owners shared the cases online and referred to suspect A as the "enteritis man," police explained.
Suspect A had committed a crime using a similar method in the past and was punished for it, but was released from prison last year.
Suspect A told police that he used most of the settlement money he stole from the self-employed for "living expenses and internet gambling."
A police official said, "The suspect mainly committed crimes during the day and turned off his mobile phone at night to avoid police pursuit."
We plan to continue our investigation to see if there are any other examples."